As the old saying goes "Garbage in, garbage out."
Now certainly if you are not interested in creating your own prompts, there are many excellent tools that will do the entire process for you such as MagicSchool, TeacherServer, Khanmigo Teacher Tools, Fobizz, Brisk Teaching and more.
However, creating your own prompts gives you much more control and flexibility. And it really isn't that difficult! Prompt engineering is a valuable skill for everyone to help us get the most out of our use of AI.
In this blog post we will explore my top 10 tips for creating the perfect prompt, as well as other prompt engineering resources and techniques. And as always, please share your suggestions with me. I am excited to learn with you!
🧰 Session Resources
I also present this information as a PD session called "World of Promptcraft: The Quest to Build a Better Prompt". If you want, you can access the resources from the session below.
- Session Resource Document - Google Docs link or bit.ly/curts-aiprompt
- Session Slideshow - View Slides - Copy Slides
📋 Example Prompt Frameworks
Before we dive into my top 10 prompt tips, it is important to mention that there are many existing frameworks, often with helpful acronyms, to provide guidance for creating prompts. Many of these have helped me as I learned about prompting and identified my favorite components.
Some examples include:
PREPARE (from Dan Fitzpatrick)
- Prompt, Role, Explicit, Parameters, Ask, Rate, Emotion
Google's Gemini Prompting Guide (PDF link)
- Persona, Task, Context, Format
CIDI (from Gianluca Mauro)
- Context, Instructions, Details, Input
The FIVE "S" Model (from AI for Education)
- Set the scene, Be Specific, Simplify your language, Structure the output, Share Feedback
🧩 10 Prompt Components
After reviewing dozens of frameworks and practicing with prompting, I determined 10 components that are helpful for creating a good prompt.
- Several of these components may overlap in some areas.
- You likely would not use all ten of these, but would draw from these as needed for each specific situation.
See below for my list of ten prompt components, what they are, why they matter, and examples of their use.
🎭 1) AI Role or Persona
What it is: Define the AI's role or perspective to set the tone and approach for the task.
Why it matters:
- Establishing a persona helps tailor the style, depth, and perspective of the response.
- Helps the AI "think" with a specific mindset or expertise.
- Ensures the tone, vocabulary, and approach match the scenario.
Examples:
- "You are a kindergarten teacher skilled in early literacy strategies."
- "You are a culturally responsive educator with 15 years of experience in diverse urban schools."
- "You are Abraham Lincoln, reflecting on your leadership philosophy."
- "Assume the role of an experienced K-12 lesson designer with a deep understanding of differentiated instruction."
- "You are a kind and supportive librarian helping 4th graders choose books."
🎯 2) Task or Objective
What it is: Clearly state the specific job you need the AI to do or the goal you want to achieve.
Why it matters:
- The AI’s response will be more accurate and relevant if it knows exactly what you want.
- Prevents vague or overly general responses.
Examples:
- "Create a rubric for a 5th-grade social studies project."
- "Explain the concept of fractions in a way a 3rd grader would understand."
- "Generate multiple-choice questions for a high school biology quiz."
- "Draft a professional but empathetic letter to parents explaining upcoming changes in the curriculum."
- "Summarize this article for a middle school science class."
👂 3) Audience or Context
What it is: Specify who the AI’s response is meant for and any relevant background info or setting to ensure the output aligns with the needs.
Why it matters:
- Tailors complexity, style, and examples to the intended audience.
- Informs the AI about constraints or special considerations (e.g., reading level, prior knowledge).
Examples:
- "This explanation is intended for 5th-grade students with diverse reading levels. The setting is a science classroom where students have limited background knowledge of ecosystems."
- "For 7th-grade students who are English Language Learners."
- "For high school parents attending a back-to-school night."
- "For middle school counselors who need quick, practical examples."
- "For 2nd-grade students learning about space exploration."
📝 4) Details and Instructions
What it is: Provide as much context and specificity as possible to ensure the output meets your expectations. This is your "instruction manual" for the AI. Think of it like giving directions to a colleague - What exactly do they need to know to do the job well?
Why it matters:
- The more detail you provide, the more tailored and precise the AI’s response will be.
- Prevents misunderstandings and incomplete responses.
Examples:
- "Explain photosynthesis in three stages: define, demonstrate with an example, then connect to the water cycle."
- "Provide two paragraphs summarizing the main arguments, followed by a bullet list of key takeaways."
- "Include step-by-step directions for setting up a science fair project display."
- "Create a lesson plan for a 45-minute session, including objectives, activities, and assessments."
🎨 5) Format, Structure and Style
What it is: Tell the AI how the information should be organized and the tone or style to use.
Why it matters:
- Specific formatting instructions ensure the response is easily usable and shareable.
- Helps the AI pick the right voice (formal, casual, playful, etc.).
Examples:
- "Present the final output in a 4-column table with headings for ‘Topic,’ ‘Definition,’ ‘Example,’ and ‘Relevance to Students.’ Use a friendly, encouraging tone."
- "Use bullet points and simple sentences suitable for 2nd graders."
- "Adopt a professional, informative tone suitable for a principal’s newsletter."
- "Write as a narrative story, including dialogue and a clear resolution."
🚫 6) Limits and Restrictions
What it is: Outline what not to include or do. These are your guardrails to keep the response on track, focus the AI's output, and prevent irrelevant content.
Why it matters:
- Prevents unwanted language, overly complex jargon, biases, or excessively long responses.
- Ensures the content is safe, inclusive, and fits your objectives.
Examples:
- "Keep responses to under 200 words."
- "Do not use acronyms or educational jargon."
- "Avoid stereotypes and potential biases."
- "Do not move on until after the user has responded."
📖 7) Samples and Examples
What it is: Provide one or more examples of the kind of response or style you are looking for to serve as a reference for the AI.
Why it matters:
- AI can learn from examples (sometimes called "few-shot prompting").
- Reduces guesswork by showing the AI exactly how you want the final product to look, sound, or flow.
Examples:
- "Here is a sample paragraph that demonstrates the tone, length, and level of detail I want. Please model your response after it."
- "Please mimic the structure of the attached rubric (categories, criteria, rating scale)."
- "Use the narrative style found in this short story example—focus on character thoughts and dialogue."
- "Match the style of feedback shown in the sample: concise, constructive, and encouraging."
📓 8) Reference Materials
What it is: Supply the AI with any necessary documents, links, or data sources to ensure accurate and relevant responses.
Why it matters:
- The AI can directly incorporate or summarize the information from your materials.
- Ensures alignment with specific curriculum standards, frameworks, or texts.
Examples:
- "Refer to the attached PDF for detailed unit objectives and assessment guidelines. Incorporate the rubric criteria into your response."
- "Based on the research article attached, write a summary at a 10th-grade reading level."
- "Use the video transcript to pull key quotes that highlight climate change statistics."
- "Please follow the outline in the provided Google Doc."
➕ 9) Extra Information and Clarification
What it is: Invite the AI to request any additional details or clarifications needed to produce the best output.
Why it matters:
- Reminds the AI to check for incomplete or ambiguous instructions.
- Helps you identify missing pieces you may not have considered.
Examples:
- "Before giving me your results, please let me know if you need any additional information, context or clarification to provide the best response."
- "Is there any other information you need regarding the learning objectives?"
- "Do you need more background on the students’ prior knowledge or skill levels?"
- "Is there additional detail required about formatting or length?"
❓ 10) Follow-up Questions
What it is: After receiving an initial response, engage the AI in evaluating and refining the output. Remember that the word "chat" is the first part of "ChatGPT" - this is a conversation, not a one-shot interaction. Reflection and iterative refinement are a part of the process.
Why it matters:
- The first answer is not always the best answer.
- Ensures continuous improvement of the response.
- Encourages the AI to self-check for errors or biases.
Examples:
- "Please review your response for clarity, potential bias, or inaccuracies. Suggest improvements to make it more appropriate for 5th-grade learners."
- "Could you provide a more concise version?"
- "Is the reading level appropriate for beginning English learners?"
- "What could be added to make this explanation more engaging for middle school students?"
📄 Example Prompt
Putting all 10 prompt components together, here is an example of what a comprehensive prompt might look like. Keep in mind that you certainly do not need to incorporate all 10 components in every prompt. Using any of these components will help to improve your results.
1) AI Role or Persona
You are an experienced science teacher with a strong background in differentiated instruction.
2) Task or Objective
Write a brief introduction to ecosystems that highlights key vocabulary (food chain, producers, consumers).
3) Audience or Context
This explanation is for 6th-grade students who are new to the concept of ecosystems.
4) Details and Instructions
Include an example of a simple food chain, and explain how it works step by step.
5) Format, Structure and Style
Present the explanation in short paragraphs with bullet points for key facts. Use a friendly and engaging tone.
6) Limits and Restrictions
Avoid jargon or acronyms. Do not mention complex ecological theories beyond a basic food chain. Keep it under 300 words.
7) Samples and Examples
Here’s a sample style I like: "[Short, clear paragraph introducing a concept, followed by bullet points of key ideas.]"
8) Reference Materials
Refer to the attached PDF on rainforest ecosystems for factual details about producers and consumers.
9) Missing Information and Clarification
Before giving me your results, please let me know if you need any additional information, context or clarification to provide the best response.
10) Follow-up Questions
Please review your response for clarity and appropriateness for 6th grade students. Is there anything you can do to improve this content?
💡 Learn from Prompt Libraries
Another way to improve your skill at creating prompts is to explore and learn from exemplar prompts provided by other people. Below are some examples of good prompts to learn from.
My sample prompts
- AI Interview - Resource link
- AI Debate - Resource link
- AI “Choose Your Own Adventure” games - Resource link
- AI "20 Questions" games - Resource link
- AI Co-Writing - Resource link
- Bloom's Taxonomy activity generator - Resource link
- Zone of Proximal Development activity generator - Resource link
- Choice Board generator - Resource link
- DOK Leveled Questions generator - Resource link
- Google My Maps generator - Resource link
- Blogpost - "AI Prompt Libraries for Educators" - Resource link
- AI for Education GenAI Prompt Library - Resource link
- More Useful Things Prompt Library - Resource link
- AI Prompt Library - Resource link
- The Little Book of Generative AI Prompts - Resource link
- Groovy Education Educator Prompt Library - Resource link
Another way to create good prompts is to use the Collaborative Prompt Technique to develop the prompt with the help of the AI.
Details
- AI Prompting: Collaborative Prompt Technique - Blog post link
Overview
- Tell the AI chatbot the task you want to accomplish
- Ask the AI chatbot what information it needs from you to do this
- Provide that additional information to the AI chatbot to get your result
Prompt Template
I need to [create / write / do … a specific product / task / project / etc.]. Please provide me with a list of questions and/or information you need from me for you to be able to [generate / create / write … this product / task / item] for me. |
Example
I need to create a grading rubric for a persuasive writing assignment for my 8th grade language arts students. Please provide me with a list of questions and/or information you need from me for you to be able to generate this rubric for me. |
🦸 Super Prompt
Another way to create good prompts is to use a "Super Prompt" that can be used to generate high quality prompts.
Details
- "Super Prompt - An AI Prompt to Create AI Prompts" - Blog post link
Overview
- A "Super Prompt" is an AI prompt that can be used to generate AI prompts.
- Due to the complexity of this task, you will have the most success with more advanced AI chatbots such as ChatGPT 4o.
Prompt Template
You are tasked with creating a detailed and adaptable prompt template for modern AI chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic's Claude) that will be utilized by K-12 educators. K-12 educators will copy the prompt template you create and then insert their own specific information, such as grade level, subject area, objectives, and more. The prompt template should be detailed and thorough. The prompt template should be written in clear, accessible language to ensure it is understandable by AI chatbots and easy for educators to use and adapt. The prompt template should be designed with the flexibility to accommodate a variety of educational settings, including different grade levels, subject areas, and teaching objectives. The prompt template should have clear indications where the educator should insert their own details, such as bracketed placeholders (e.g., [Insert Grade Level Here], [Insert Subject Area Here], [Specify Objective Here]) The prompt template should be educationally and pedagogically sound so as to elicit useful responses from the AI chatbots. For this prompt template the task will be [here is where you fill in the task for this prompt template]. Please generate this prompt template. |
Examples
- Story Generator - Google Docs link
- Student Writing Feedback - Google Docs link
- Rubric Generator - Google Docs link
🎓 Learn More
For more ideas and training on AI prompting, see below for online courses and resources:
Google Prompting Essentials
- https://grow.google/prompting-essentials/
- Description - In under 10 hours of self-paced study, you’ll learn to design effective prompts in 5 easy steps. Discover how to generate content, analyze data, and summarize information faster. You’ll also build a library of reusable prompts, so the next time you need a little help from AI at work, you’re not prompting from scratch.
Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT
- https://www.coursera.org/learn/prompt-engineering
- Description - This course introduces students to the patterns and approaches for writing effective prompts for large language models. Students will start with basic prompts and build towards writing sophisticated prompts to solve problems in any domain. By the end of the course, students will have strong prompt engineering skills and be capable of using large language models for a wide range of tasks in their job, business, personal life, and education, such as writing, summarization, game play, planning, simulation, and programming.
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Thank you so much for this detailed and insightful guide on crafting the perfect AI prompt. As an educator, I find these tips incredibly valuable. Your breakdown of each component not only simplifies the process but also empowers us to use AI more creatively and responsibly in our classrooms. This is a wonderful resource for all of us in education!
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